[Scorpio1957]

Canjam NYC had one

Yes, it was brought to Canjam London last year by the U.K. dealer Hifonix who is based in the Midlands, they are down for this years event so there could be a chance they bring it again.

 

[goldwerger]

Canjam NYC had one

That’s was Marshal’s personal set, he was kind to bring it and even more so let everyone listen to it at HeadAmp and beyond..

 

[wazzupi]

That’s was Marshal’s personal set, he was kind to bring it and even more so let everyone listen to it at HeadAmp and beyond..

Oh is that what happened I just heard it at headamps room my friend handed it to me after he finished listening.

 

[goldwerger]

Oh is that what happened I just heard it at headamps room my friend handed it to me after he finished listening.

Yea and that headphone with the grand cayman was my personal highlight for CanJam NYC.. such a wonderful opportuntiy

If only Hifiman ever wanted to recreate it for for their own potential customers..

 

[number1sixerfan]

Yea I would think that Hifiman would bring a set, at least to the larger CanJam events. There's really a rare chance for anyone to hear it otherwise. Seems like the exact reason Sennheiser took advantage of such an opportunity.

I tried to let as many people as possible listen to mine before I had to leave. Unfortunately I had family and friends in town the exact same weekend.

 

[goldwerger]

Yea I would think that Hifiman would bring a set, at least to the larger CanJam events. There's really a rare chance for anyone to hear it otherwise. Seems like the exact reason Sennheiser took advantage of such an opportunity.

I tried to let as many people as possible listen to mine before I had to leave. Unfortunately I had family and friends in town the exact same weekend.

From your mouth to their ears…

 

[Kohonski]

Bit late to the impressions thread, but had a blast at my first CanJam!

I'd just mostly browsed around here and hadn't kept up with things much since Covid.

It was really great to meet people and nerd out about something that's otherwise been a solo hobby!

Main highlights:

• Hanging out with @joe & @warrenpchi throughout the first day
• Getting 3 wait-list texts to listen to the HE-1 from @ericpalonen before getting a spot
  
• Listening to lots of headphones for the first time
  • For instance, hd800s was nice and it gets referenced so much on these forums. All the Sennheiser guys were really nice and let me compare several different headphones
• The ZMF room as a whole. Damn. I'd break up a visits to a lot of other booths with ones to the ZMF room. So many cool pairings between different equipment. Matt and Katherine were really chill and fun to talk to.
  • Tried out the Atrium opens among other things and that was the headphone I listened to the most during the weekend
• Had a lot of fun listening to Electrostatic headphones. One of the "WOW" experiences of the weekend. I went in not knowing anything, so I didn't realize I was also listening to the BHSE. Soooo nice but also out of my price range - so I'll make it a regular stop at future CanJams
• @DeweyCH let me listen to his headphones and they were great! Lot of songs on my regular playlist sounded fantastic. My memory is faded by now - but The Killers' Hot Fuss album was one of the ones that paired very well

Next time, I probably need to have some playlists in mind but this time - felt I couldn't go wrong as everything was new!

Looking forward to the next one!

 

[ericpalonen]

... nobody likes to fork over 18 grand on a blind purchase

You'd be surprised lol

Getting 3 wait-list texts to listen to the HE-1 from @ericpalonen before getting a spot

Glad we found a slot for ya!

 

[CT007]

@number1sixerfan did bring his personal SGL to CJ Chicago, but it sounds like you didn't cross paths.

Someone pointed it out to me, sitting on the Headamp main table, when I saw it(a personal unit, ofc). Guess I had a far stronger urge to jump in line the instant I heard "MySphere" mentioned.

 

[DeweyCH]

Bit late to the impressions thread, but had a blast at my first CanJam!

I'd just mostly browsed around here and hadn't kept up with things much since Covid.

It was really great to meet people and nerd out about something that's otherwise been a solo hobby!

Main highlights:

• Hanging out with @joe & @warrenpchi throughout the first day
• Getting 3 wait-list texts to listen to the HE-1 from @ericpalonen before getting a spot
  
• Listening to lots of headphones for the first time
  • For instance, hd800s was nice and it gets referenced so much on these forums. All the Sennheiser guys were really nice and let me compare several different headphones
• The ZMF room as a whole. Damn. I'd break up a visits to a lot of other booths with ones to the ZMF room. So many cool pairings between different equipment. Matt and Katherine were really chill and fun to talk to.
  • Tried out the Atrium opens among other things and that was the headphone I listened to the most during the weekend
• Had a lot of fun listening to Electrostatic headphones. One of the "WOW" experiences of the weekend. I went in not knowing anything, so I didn't realize I was also listening to the BHSE. Soooo nice but also out of my price range - so I'll make it a regular stop at future CanJams
• @DeweyCH let me listen to his headphones and they were great! Lot of songs on my regular playlist sounded fantastic. My memory is faded by now - but The Killers' Hot Fuss album was one of the ones that paired very well

Next time, I probably need to have some playlists in mind but this time - felt I couldn't go wrong as everything was new!

Looking forward to the next one!

You should hear them play Day and Age!

 

[Danger]

The main takeaway for me from the event was that it reinforced my contentedness with my current, main setup, that being a Gustard X16 Dac into a Felik's Audio Echo OTL Amp into ZMF Aoelus. Pretty basic, but gets me to such a good place that I have no complaints.

 

[MillionAntz]

OK YALL time for the full CanJam Experience

This was year 2 at the Chicago CanJam, this time the woman and I stayed at the hotel (marriot marquis was expensive as heck at the time, but hyatt was more reasonable lol)

Real quick thank you to Mimic Audio for having a ton of stuff and being fantastic dudes with great humor; @HeadAmpTeam for being fantastic people with great gear available and blessing me with a fanny pack (i will cherish it forever!); Joe from Antlion for a good chat and filling me in on what they doin; @DekoniAudio for the eartips and the YUGE discount on the dekoni grado pad that i was wanting for my koss beast; Bloom audio for having great stuff available and for the SpinFits; the guys from T10 Bespoke for the opportunity to try the cool tech; and the fantastic fellas from @Audeze for both the seminar and the hat they gave me last year that i wear on a daily basis. A great hat!

Most listening was done on ifi Gryphon unless otherwise stated

TL;DR ananda nano and mm100 were the real showstealers, verite closed was better than i expected, fostex makes the most comfy headphones but gosh dang the tuning, really digging the atrium and the tuning of the prototype, crosszone cz1 was unexpectedly good, my gosh susvara is great, hd820 fell short again.

It was awesome to meet all the people that I did, I hope everyone gets home safe and had a great experience this trip. I hope to learn how to head-fi better to be able to connect with yall, and I will see you guys next year!

From the top, we have ZMF

Atrium was a LOT better than I remember it last year. Really got to appreciate the tuning this time around. mid-forward but not too much where metalcore went unenjoyable, and a proper amount of beefy.

Atrium Closed was just as fantastic, if not better for my use case, than atrium (needs more experiencing), felt way more fun in the bass


ZMF's prototype is definitely a prototype, felt like it had work to do in terms of technicality, but the neutral tuning of this is perfect. If this fit my head better (had an air gap below my ears, which i get on a few headphones unfortunately), this would be a perfect contender for what I would look for at 1000 bucks.


Caldera was great, love the redwood (at least i think this is redwood). exceptional detail retrieval, but i hope to listen to this again to be able to better understand how its tuned. But so far I liked it a lot!

One more caldera for the camera reel. Gosh dang these things are pretty


Real quick detour from cans to the JDSLabs x ZMF headphone amp. Not surprised its balanced to single ended thats just adapted to balanced outputs similar to the El Dac II+. Sounded crisp and neutral, volume pot felt real good. Hope to see what the finished product looks like!


Man i really friggin want an Aeolus. This was as damn good as I remember it being last year, super beefy yet technically proficient. If i could get this in either a redwood or a black walnut, I would be SET.
- I didn;t get to really sit down and enjoy Auteur this year, BUT the listening I did made me realize that I would rather have Aeolus or Atrium. What a weird feeling, since I really enjoyed it last year


Verite Closed was the biggest surprise for me this year. A neutral closedback with super wide soundstage and incredible technicalities? Sign me up! Only had a bit of an issue with fitment, but I'm sure that's a small beans issue since ZMF's are so flexy with getting a good fit

Fostex time! I don't have any pictures, but a bit of thoughts for the two that i sat down to listen to. Still using the gryphon, which did fine with powering these but both benefit big time on higher-end gear

TH909 - these were unreasonably comfortable on my head once i got the right fit, but I did have an issue with every one of these fostex cans with the fit unadjusting once they were on my head. 909 was BRIGHT, even trying mimic audio's 90 that had dekoni fen-sheepskin pads was still too bright. A little bass-light, midrange was solid
TH900 - in opposition to the 909, these were bass heavy and sparkly, maybe even v-shaped?

Next up: Audeze, a treat to enjoy as always!

MM-100 was an absolute blast, these were smooth and had WAY better bass than I was expecting while maintaining neutrality. This may be an absolute steal at 400 bucks, but i might not have a need for it since i have LCD 2c. But damn do I want them.

Shoutout again to Mimic Audio for this YUGE collections of headphones to enjoy. And to laugh at where appropriate.


Meze's Liric was fantastic bassy fun. I was surprised how well the midrange was preserved with all this bass and sparkly (possibly bright) treble

Didn't take a pic of DCA Noire, but more bass than liric and way more sparkly. Both Liric and Noire were beyond comfortable, but a bit more clamp on noire? hmm


oh gosh spirit torino. radiante was narrow, sharp, and had bass that wasn't that good. centauri was "fuzzy." Hopefully I get to listen to the good spirit torinos next year, would appreciate recommendations. That being, gosh dang is centauri pretty, what a feat of woodworking


these crosszone cz1's look as stupid in real life as they do in pictures, but the whole triple-driver thing really worked for me. i appreciated how these weren't congested at any point in the frequency response. super cool little gizmo


Moondrop Venus sounded absolutely fantastic (a steal at the price), but it fell apart twice in my hands trying to put them on. once they were on, super light but did notice some werid hot-spots on my temple and the back of my head. strange little device but super impressive for what it's offering

Thank you Bloom Audio for having this show-stopping ananda nano available


A little bright and sparkly, but the midrange and bass capacity (which is plenty) is exactly what I thought I was looking for in this. Gonna start saving up to get a set.


Ear Micro from T10 Bespoke wasn't technically impressive with its sound, but the technology behind this little do-dad is seriously impressive. learning head motion so i can shake my head to play the next song? What a cool little device. Case is a bit heavy, not sure if these would make the best necklace as advertised


thank you DCS for having the cool quiet room so i can put my pair of kph40's on a bartok alpha, what a hell of a synergy these really showed that my little koss can scale as far as I think it can, super impressed. Put my elegia's on this via XLR, absolutely fantastic too

Alrighty it's headamp time


was genuinely surprised to not have enjoyed the 109 pro, a little too warm for me but that couldve been from the gryphon. treble sounded fantastic on these tho. comfy, heavier than i expected


oh gosh this was my first susvara experience. I was suprised i could get good volume out of these with my gryphon (running at 92/106 for volume through 4.4), but these really did come alive off the headamp prototype (which is fantastic btw, seriously brought my lcd 2c's to life). I really loved the neutrality of susvara, technicals blew me away. Usually pads this shallow could have my ears uncomfortable, but i had absolutely no issues with susvara. This would be worth buying if I ever had the money, but thatd mean serious upgrades to my gear. What a headphone good gosh


I keep coming back to the sennheiser hd820 wanting to like it. I had the opportunity to run this with my own music this year, which was a Godsend. Unfortunately, without EQ this is not a good headphone. muddy bass, under-represented mids, decent treble tho. soundstage is beyond fantastic, super resolving. I had to put on xspace and presence mode with my gryphon in order for this to not suck, but going back to the stock tuning left me with a hole in my heart. Maybe senny will make a v2 of this that fixes all these issues, which i would be willing to buy. But until then, i dont want to be disappointed but I am. what the heck.


Last thing, wanted to share the koss beast and another thank you to Dekoni for letting me slightly violate a set of fenestrated sheep dekoni pads to fit on this dingus. pulled a little bit of mud out of the ksc75 driver but might have made it a bit bright. I'll have to give it a bit more listening to really be able to tell.

What is your favorite ZMF for metalcore, deathcore and any adjacent music? I have a HE1000 Stealth on the way but have also been eyeing a pair of ZMF cans

 

[BarefootDyl]

What is your favorite ZMF for metalcore, deathcore and any adjacent music? I have a HE1000 Stealth on the way but have also been eyeing a pair of ZMF cans

Havent had sufficient time of straight up metalcore/deathcore/djent with any zmf, but my ears always geared towards aeolus based on other genres ive tried. Warmer cans will usually sound better for these genres, but dont go too warm like atticus imo

 

[ardbeg1975]

Havent had sufficient time of straight up metalcore/deathcore/djent with any zmf, but my ears always geared towards aeolus based on other genres ive tried. Warmer cans will usually sound better for these genres, but dont go too warm like atticus imo

I don’t own an Aeolus anymore but from past listening, I would second this recommendation for those genres.